07 February, 2017

Is Trump trying to drive a wedge between Russia and China?

Is the Trump administration
embarked on a foreign policy of driving a strategic wedge between
Russia, China, and Iran? Given the precedent set by the
Nixon-Kissinger strategy of the 1970s vis-à-vis Russia and China,
the question is pertinent.

Trump’s foreign policy since he
assumed office can be boiled down to the simple, if not simplistic,
proposition of peace with Russia and conflict with China and Iran.
The problem with such a policy, of course, is that any conflict with
China or Iran will make peace with Russia hard to achieve given that
both are longstanding allies and partners of Moscow, and therefore
would place Russia in a difficult position.

Regardless, there are those who
continue to project faith in Trump based on nothing more concrete
than the fact he isn’t Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. This is
political illiteracy of the most basic sort, especially in light of
the maiden speech of the new president’s Ambassador to the UN,
Nikki Haley, to the Security Council over the resumption of conflict
in eastern Ukraine.

“The United States continues
to condemn and calls for an immediate end to the Russian occupation
of Crimea,” Haley said. “Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Our
Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns
control over the peninsula to Ukraine.”